Read-aloud List

I made a new baby blanket as a gift for my friends' new little girl. They did not know her gender until she was born, so I wanted to choose neutral colors. I thought the gray/silver and icy mint combo were great for a Winter baby, and I really liked the different stripe pattern (not plain and not a ripple, but kind of a vintage feel). I added a scallop border to the long edges to replicate the ripple look on the short edges. I loved the stripe, but it was SO many ends to weave in at the end. Still worth it!

Pattern is available for purchase here.
Yarn is Caron Simply Soft in Soft Gray Heather and Robin's Egg

Poor EJ has run out of room for new teeth in her mouth. We visited the orthodontist about how her teeth were coming in crooked and he agreed that she will not have enough space for her permanent teeth. So today she had four teeth pulled by the dentist. She definitely was scared going in and I'm sure it wasn't a fun process, but she was super brave and did a great job!

Right after we got home...she had to keep the gauze in for an hour, but she had no feeling at this point anyway, so it wasn't a big bother.

For the second year, the kids begged to do the balloon activity countdown to New Years Eve. What started as a time filler last year, turned into a tradition...I guess? We'll see what happens next year...

We started with a new location for the balloon countdown set-up. I added a color coding system to help me know which ones were at specific times (like red involves food). I know we did more things than shown below (like I know we watched a movie), but these are the highlights.

Then got to popping (some times went better than others)

This year we started with lunch with Auntie Sandy (which was actually our Christmas celebration with her)

We stopped to geocache and deliver some donations (we took some balloons in the car with us) and then headed back home to settle in (and pop more balloons).

The kids started out by making goal lists for the coming year. These are not resolutions, just things they'd like to accomplish this year. For example, one of EJ's is to read 100 books in 2015.

We played a Wii bowling tourney...

Built a fire...

Played some board games (including a heated round of Quirkle)...

Wine for the grown-ups and sparkling apple juice for the kids (with licorice straws) to kick off our buffet snack dinner.

Painted/created some noisemakers/shakers to ring in the new year (although we forgot about them by that time)...

I added a new thing which was a mini round of Minute to Win It games. Big hit!

Ring Pops to ring in the new year. Note there are just two kids in this photo. I think Liv made it to 10pm. :-( Happy New Year!